No Control Over Personal Info You Must Pay To Protect It

Be careful online with your personal information is the advice you get, yet you have no say about who has it and can sell it.

The government has your info, basically all of it and you have no choice no matter what you do with it yourself. The government has no problem sharing it. For example . . .

All your personal records are up for grabs via paid background search services. Just Google your name and a number of background checking services will come up first that include Instant Check Mate, Been Verified, My Life, and Spokeo. Pay a small price and you get almost everything the government has on you along with the information you gave out online. You can even get a good start on ID thief with the free information they are willing to tempt you with to go forward with the paid information. For less than $20 you can access information on anyone you want for 24 hours or you can pay more for a whole month to update your data base on potential ID theft victims.

Then there are the credit bureaus that have all your financial information and the power to create your credit rating all without your permission. They have all been hacked for years along with numerous other businesses that store your personal information. Everything about you is now on the darkweb, available for some bitcoins. What responsibility do any of them have for the security of your personal information they acquired without your permission? Hardly any or none at all. A settlement with Equifax "entitles" all victims to 10 years of free credit monitoring or $125. That puny amount of money will get you about six months of monitoring from the cheapest identity theft protection services available.

So you must pay and pay to protect your most important information regardless if you never give that information outside of what is required. Change your name, social security number, address, stop using a bank account, never use a debit or credit card again and pay for a identity theft protection service every month and still your information is available to who ever wants to pay for it either legally or illegally. You have zero control over your identity and most important private information and it is used and abused to make a lot of people money, except you of course.

The only way to keep your information private is to fake your death, live as a wandering hermit, and use an multiple aliases with cash you got outside of the system. You must no longer exist to keep your information private. The beast lives.

Mine would bore folks to death...
Seriously

a reply to: Gothmog

I have zero credit history, not that that maters with all the scams out there. I doubt too many people would want to use my identity, even if they did, it just might improve my credit rating. But none of that is the point of my rant.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck


Most of what pops up, arrest records, things like that, are public knowledge, these websites just compile what you can typically find free for a fee instead.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck


Most of what pops up, arrest records, things like that, are public knowledge, these websites just compile what you can typically find free for a fee instead.

So true, I was going to rant about that too. It just helps prove my point, so thanks for adding that. Yeah, the government isn't charging for that info, but others make you pay for it, that what I meant when I said, "for a price". I just edited that part out so it's more accurate now.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

I think a law should be made allowing anyone who has there identification stolen for the purpose of loans should be able to sue the place that recieved your stolen I'd and gave the thief a loan. Accomplice or recieving stolen goods or something .

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

S&F for an important thread MSB.
I just found out yesterday that my info was part of the EQUIFAX DATA BREACH.
I filed for the Free Credit Monitoring.

1. Free Credit Monitoring or $125 Cash Payment. You can get free credit monitoring services. Or, if you already have credit monitoring services, you can request a $125 cash payment. At least 4 years of three-bureau credit monitoring, offered through Experian. You can also get up to 6 more years of free one-bureau credit monitoring through Equifax. If you already have credit monitoring services that will continue for at least 6 more months, you may be eligible for a cash payment of $125.

2. Other Cash Payments. You may also be eligible for the following cash payments up to $20,000 for: the time you spent remedying fraud, identity theft, or other misuse of your personal information caused by the data breach, or purchasing credit monitoring or freezing credit reports, up to 20 total hours at $25 per hour. out-of-pocket losses resulting from the data breach. up to 25% of the cost of Equifax credit or identity monitoring products you paid for in the year before the data breach announcement.

To see if your data was breached and you are eligible go here.
EquifaxBreachEligability

Life was so much simpler before all this technology took control of everything.

Now...GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

a reply to: stosh64

Yeah, just checked mine, they said I was safe, RIGHT! That is what prompted this rant.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

'mornin, MSB.....

Such is our cost for the "convenience" of the digital age...

Take care up' state, eh...?!!!😎


*PS..everyone has a credit history/rating based on things forward from your 1st financial gas or lights, cable, tax bills...all create your base credit dating...along with others as soon have bills in your name.

a reply to: stosh64

thanks for the link!
I got $125 coming.

I already have free monitoring from another data breach.
And Credit Karma alerts me if something changes in my credit, it's free too.

And the so-called protection services don't do anything. I signed up for Lifelock years ago, where they assured me their monitoring would help "protect" me. At the same time I was a member of "Stratfor," a kind of private intelligence agency. They got hacked during November and told no one until late December "because they were cooperating with the authorities," they said. Once I found out I was able to verify that my account data and password were, indeed, in the wild. I saw the file where it was listed. Naturally, I changed passwords and account details for everything that was leaked, including the credit card I had used. Then in late January Lifelock sent me an email and said "You've been hacked." and that's ALL they did. I was so pissed I cancelled the service and they actually sent me a refund for the unused portion, but talk about a day late and a dollar short, they were totally useless. I found out about all this before they did and had it fixed before they contacted me.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Dont even think it will work ether.
www.laptopmag.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">https...://www.laptopmag.com/articles/hp-keylogger-installed

fortune.com...

I hate their printers too.

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

'mornin, MSB.....

Such is our cost for the "convenience" of the digital age...

Take care up' state, eh...?!!!😎


*PS..everyone has a credit history/rating based on things forward from your 1st financial gas or lights, cable, tax bills...all create your base credit dating...along with others as soon have bills in your name.

I always thought that I must have some kind of credit history, yet the credit bureaus say I don't have one. Strange because it would seem that if I have gone through life paying my way without getting credit, they'd be trying to sign me up daily. No credit card offers for me, yet my GF who had to file bankruptcy gets them all the time and has to do some credit buying to increase her credit rating.

It is worse than you think it is. Those surface level sites just scrape the web for info, all of it can be found for free if you are willing to take a week (for beginners at least) to do it. However there are others that cost about the same but give you far more information, the type that professionals will use. Like BRB Publications or TLOxp, and you can as a "researcher" or "journalist" dig up a buttload more info like everywhere they have lived their cars/plate numbers, everyone they have lived with. All of that information is there online, but at least that is behind a paywall ...unless it gets leaked like it did in the Equifax leak.

You don't even need to have a persona internet presence, the major companies have a ghost profile ready and raring to go for you. That is what is actually scary, that you could never have been on the internet but family and friends are active because of that a ghost profile exists in the gap where you would be.

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
a reply to: Gothmog

I have zero credit history, not that that maters with all the scams out there. I doubt too many people would want to use my identity, even if they did, it just might improve my credit rating. But none of that is the point of my rant.

On one of the sites we were laughing at, I own a house worth sixteen dollars. Hmmm. I guess they figure I live in a tarp tent since you can't even buy a tent for sixteen bucks.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

As much as I hate dealing with some of the requirements of GDPR at work, we do need something similar here in the states. Would help to prevent some of these issues.

Edit: GDPR Wiki

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

'mornin, MSB.....

Such is our cost for the "convenience" of the digital age...

Take care up' state, eh...?!!!😎


*PS..everyone has a credit history/rating based on things forward from your 1st financial gas or lights, cable, tax bills...all create your base credit dating...along with others as soon have bills in your name.

I always thought that I must have some kind of credit history, yet the credit bureaus say I don't have one. Strange because it would seem that if I have gone through life paying my way without getting credit, they'd be trying to sign me up daily. No credit card offers for me, yet my GF who had to file bankruptcy gets them all the time and has to do some credit buying to increase her credit rating.

If you've never used credit in any form, why would you think credit bureaus have a "credit history" on you? You don't have a "credit history" so creditors do not know whether or not you are credit worthy, hence, no solicitations and no score. And yes, using credit increases your score. Using it a little bit instead of a lot increases your score even more because the ratio of "credit used" versus "credit available" is one of the biggest factors in determining a score. And THAT is why canceling a card you don't often use is a bad idea. It changes the ratio and lowers your score.

In your case it is no big deal because you don't use credit. It will only become an issue if you try to rent something like a car or an apartment and you are denied because you have no credit score. It's a trade-off and you make that decision.

HOWEVER, what may be much worse is the implementation of a "social credit score" like they have in China. So if you sign up for the Area 51 invasion or read ATS and your score goes down and that puts you on a "no fly" list, THAT'S where we are headed.